Bonavero Discussion Group: Animals and the Constitution - Towards Sentience-Based Constitutionalism

On 10th June, we are delighted to host a launch event for Animals and the Constitution - a new book by Dr John Olusegun Adenitire and Dr Raffael Fasel.

Constitutionalism—the idea that constitutions should limit and direct government power—has emerged as the global standard for the exercise of public authority. Its appeal lies in the simple idea that constitutions should secure governance in the interests of the governed. Yet, its popularity has obscured a significant problem: constitutions are centred on the interests of rational human beings, neglecting those who lack such capacities—most notably, non-human animals.

Animals and the Constitution breaks new ground by challenging the human-centredness of current constitutional theory and practices. It pioneers a more capacious account of constitutionalism—sentience-based constitutionalism— which is grounded in respect for the interests of all governed sentient beings. The book demonstrates how this account can be implemented in modern constitutions by rethinking four key principles of constitutionalism: constitutional rights, proportionality, the rule of law, and democracy. To illustrate how these principles can be reimagined to protect the interests of both humans and animals, the book draws on and examines numerous real-world examples, ranging from judicial recognitions of wild animals rights in Ecuador, to direct-democratic votes on primates rights in Switzerland, to entire proposed bills of rights for animals in Finland.

A unique combination of constitutional theory, animal ethics, and comparative constitutional law, this book offers a practical blueprint for constitutions to address the moral and legal status of sentient beings.

Dr John Olusegun Adenitire is a Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London, School of Law and a Co-Director of the Forum on Decentering the Human, an inter-disciplinary research centre. He completed his PhD in Law at Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge. He has held visiting research fellowships at Yale, Oxford, New York University, and Fordham University. He has published extensively on constitutional rights, discrimination law and theory, and animal rights. He teaches animal rights law, public law, legal philosophy and EU law at Queen Mary.

Dr Raffael Fasel is Assistant Professor in Public Law at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Jesus College. At Cambridge, he completed his PhD thesis on human and animal rights, which was awarded a Yorke Prize in 2020. He co-founded the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law and lectures on Europe's first Animal Rights Law course, which he co-created. He has published widely in animal rights law, constitutional law, and constitutional theory.

Professor Timothy Endicott is the Vinerian Professor of English Law in the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of All Souls College. He writes on Constitutional and Administrative Law and Jurisprudence, with special interests in law and language and legal interpretation. He is the author of Administrative Law, 5th ed (OUP 2021) and Vagueness in Law (OUP 2000)

Dr Leah Trueblood is Fellow and Tutor in Public Law at Worcester College, Oxford. She was previously a fixed-term fellow of Worcester College, and a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. She studied philosophy at the University of Alberta and Law at LSE. Her DPhil, completed at Oxford in 2018, was funded by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. The monograph based on her thesis, Referendums as Representative Democracy was published by Hart in 2024. She has also published in, among other places, the International Journal of Constitutional Law, the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Public Law, and the Modern Law Review.

Professor Kate O'Regan is the inaugural Director of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights and a former judge of the South African Constitutional Court (1994 – 2009).